Date:  Tue, 23 Dec 1997 10:10:07 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: "wig out"

At 07:06 AM 12/23/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Tom Dalzell's book, Flapper 2 Rappers, says it was both mainstream and hippie
>slang of the 60s. At least on the West Coast, the term (meaning "to go
>crazy") is still current and was reported at UCLA and CPP this year.
>
>Judi Sanders
>

First place I heard it was from urban NYCity working-class 20-year-olds that
I was teaching at a branch of CUNY as a grad student in the later 1980's.
The sense from context was to flip out or go crazy or get upset. Cf. the
older "flip one's wig," which (without research) I always took it to be a
variant of.

Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu